A business coach I know decided at the age of 22 to retire at 50. He didn’t have children, move house often or get divorced, all expensive activities. He also studied investing and basically spent less than he earned. He was a great spreadsheet man and knew exactly how much he was going to need and created a plan to make it happen. Basically it’s to do with compound interest, when you save for a long period eventually the interest earns interest and your savings/investments grow. You need to stick with it because initially everything grows slowly, you also have to know when something isn’t working and change tack a little. He achieved his aim last in March 2020….. so the plans for travel have been severely curtailed even he couldn’t predict a global pandemic. But, he has achieved his aim i.e. not working and currently travelling in the UK spending time doing what he wants. The international travel can wait for the moment.
Now this isn’t everyones dream; but it got me thinking about investing not financially necessarily but in ourselves, about small incremental steps, patience and having a goal.
We are all getting older and there are a lot of assumptions about this i.e your health won’t be so good, pain is inevitable. In fact what sparked this topic was a client saying to me that a joint replacement was inevitable; is it?
I then began to think about small incremental changes building blocks towards a different outcome. I will declare a personal interest I have a ‘dodgy hip’ (its a technical term!) which has become quite painful of late. Physician heal thyself; yes I know.
Now we have to look at the physical reasons for an issue but it is only one aspect. Our bodies don’t deteriorate for one single reason, it’s multi factorial.
Here is where the investment comes in; years of eating a good balanced diet, with the best quality food you can afford will pay dividends in not being overweight. diabetic or generally chronically inflamed. Regular exercise both cardio ie walking and stretching/strength work will aid mobility and mental health. Rest/relaxation and stress management will also stop the chronic inflammation that causes so many issues.
Loving relationships family, children pets (not chocolate) suffuse us with oxytocin which makes us feel really cared for and cherished.
Seeing where you to invest your time and energy; for my hip it’s regular stretching. Now I have identified that I am more motivated to carry it out; because I am not overwhelmed with many different objectives.
If you have many areas that could be improved take one at a time or make some small easy tweaks to several areas and be patient with yourself.
None of these things are a quick fix they build slowly into a harvest of health, happiness and the resilience to manage difficulties. Yes, there will be days when everything goes pear shaped but getting back on track quickly without blame and guilt will keep you safe. Have an image of your goal that you look at frequently it will help you stay on course.

Your health and happiness are the most important things in the world and I would suggest that you are worth the investment.